It makes you famous, you get money from it, you go on and do the best you can, but it really is dreadful that people don't know your name.

Even in the days when they did Othello, you didn't necessarily have to be black to play Othello. You wore the makeup.

If you get a show named after you, and then play another character, that's fine. But if you do a show that's an ensemble show like... MASH, then you're in trouble.

They sometimes beat things into the ground. They don't know when to get out of a situation. They think it's going to be funny....the more you pound the nail into the ground the funnier it gets and that's not necessarily true.

I certainly don't have any airs about myself.

I've been out on the book tour going through Pittsburgh, St Louis and Cleveland, Dayton and Orlando, Raleigh-Durham. I sign many books for people.

I don't think anybody is wanting to put me back on the air. But I'm certainly out there trying.